Young Adult

A young adult in today’s society faces issues and challenges that did not exist, or were unacknowledged, in previous generations.

In 2000, Jeffrey Arnett coined the term “emergent adult” and identified changes that have occurred over the last several decades for young adults including:

More education is needed to survive in an information-based economy;

Fewer entry-level jobs are available even after significant levels of schooling;

Young people are feeling less rush to get married;

Young women feeling less rush to have babies given their wide range of career options and their access to reproductive technology if pregnancy is delayed beyond most fertile years.

Choices for both genders are more numerous for young adults than they were several decades ago. Expectations are less clear about what a person’s next step should be after finishing school (whether it be high school, college, or graduate school). In times past, young adults’ paths were often predetermined by role expectations, family expectations, and clearer gender expectations. The traditional cycle seems to have gone “off course.” Young people remain unattached to romantic partners or permanent homes, are going back to school for lack of better options, traveling, avoiding commitments, competing for unpaid internships or temporary public service volunteer jobs–in other words, forestalling the beginning of what many would consider “adult life.” Sociologists call it “the changing timetable for adulthood.”

Young adults in therapy may explore their identity, including their values, interests, and questions of who they are in the world. Instability is addressed for clients who may experience a feeling of being “in between” one stage of life and the next, often striving for independence from parents but needing to depend on them for financial or emotional support. Clients tend to be naturally self-focused at this time of their life, but may need help in seeing a bigger picture in terms of how they fit into the world and their relationships with others. Young adults’ sense of possibilities can help to establish hope for the future, but can also hinder progress if the client is overwhelmed by possibilities and may need assistance narrowing down choices. Young adults are often feeling isolated and alone, as if everyone else “has it together” except for them. Therapy helps people to see that this is not the case, and gives them a place to feel less isolated and more supported as they grapple with issues of what their life will be about.

I offer a comfortable and supportive atmosphere, with a highly personalized approach tailored to each of my client’s individual needs. Contact me today so we can get started on our work together.